Risk being wrong. . .

In order to be right, you must also risk being wrong.  Perhaps you think that an odd thing for me to say.  But my point is that the Church is suffering less from the errorists who own up to their screwy opinions but those, especially leaders, who seem unable to let their yes be yes and their no be no.  We do not stand but equivocate.  It showed up when the pandemic lead some of us to do questionable things from online communions to drive-bys in the parking lot but that was not the start of it.  When our Synod knew that there was something afoot at the St. Louis seminary, the voices that warned them were made the villains and it took an outside to stir things up enough to get something done.  But to do it, he had to risk being wrong.  It does not seem like many are willing to do that today.  We live in a culture in which there are convenient and easy ways to be faithful without being too specific or personal in calling out wrong -- when few will risk being unpopular in order to be faithful.

Even in the face of such things as abortion, we were more comfortable when we were complainers on the outside than when the Supreme Court upturned the decision making it legal and returned it back to the states and to the opinions of people.  Now what?  Before we could preach against bureaucrats but now we might have to speak up against neighbors and friends who harbor anti-life opinions.  

Is it any different with the LGBTQ+ agenda?  It is easy to pass resolutions at church conventions but do we preach and teach our people what the issues are and how to address them in the home with children, family, and friends?  Or are we too cowardly to take up the cause and make a stand that might be rejected?  I worry less about the people who own their error than those who find it hard to say anything against it, the lukewarm of Revelation who will be chewed up and spit out, and the world which finds equivocation to be consent.

We laugh about how our Synod once was suspicious of life insurance and dancing.  In retrospect, it might seem curious at best and embarrassing at worst.  But they took at stand when it was not quite popular.  They risked being wrong in order to be right.  Sometimes we do get it wrong -- but that is when we make Scripture say something it does not and not when we hold to the truth once delivered to the saints.  Life insurance and dancing seem downright trivial in the face of all the threats against biological sex, the threats to the family, the distortion of our very identity as individuals and a people, and the rights of the few to trample upon the rights of the many -- even those enshrined in our Bill of Rights!  It is not an easy time to be Christian -- at least an orthodox one.  We must be willing to risk being judged wrong by the world to stand with the right of God and His Word.

We need people who will risk being wrong in order to be right -- that means standing with the Scriptures and creed and confessions when it is not popular or easy or tolerated.  That means calling out the error that would undo what God has done and prevent a people from knowing the love of God that is strong enough to forgive sin instead of weak enough to tolerate it.  We need people who will not simply call out the generic error but call the erring to repentance, who will insist upon unity in doctrine, who will risk the wrath of peers and the world in order to stand with creed and confession upon the truth of Scripture, and who will by example lead us.